During our recent trip to Northern Arizona, we had an opportunity to see and photograph wild horses ranging free on the wild, mostly desolate large Navajo Reservation. This young pony passed right near where we were parked, and I grabbed my wife's Nikon D40 and starting shooting. Note the brand on the rear flank. We were at Canyon de Chelly at the time, and that is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. There is a very interesting story about the history of the massive canyon.
The story tuns sad from 1863 to 1868 when Kit Carson and his U.S. Army troops forced the Navajo from the canyon, destroying their homes, orchards, and livestock. They marched the surviving Navajos 300 miles to Fort Sumner. Like the Jews in the marches in the Holocaust, many of the Navajos died from thirst, hunger, and fatigue- those that survived were prisoners. In 1868 the Navajos were set free to return to their land. Starting over, they regrew fruit trees, began raising sheep, and started putting their lives back together. Today their descendants continue to live and farm in Canyon de Chelly.
Whenever I learn about the ill treatment of Native Americans, by our own government, I am saddened.
